Application Questionnaire for the accession of the Republic of Latvia to CERN as an Associate Member State CERN, Geneva th February 24 , 2020 1 Contents Executive summary ........................................................................................................................... 5 1. Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 6 1.1. Benefits of Latvia’s Associate Membership to CERN ........................................................... 7 1.2. Benefits of the CERN Associate Membership to Latvia ........................................................ 7 1.3. Political commitment ......................................................................................................... 8 2. Historic and on-going cooperation between Latvia and CERN and other relevant physics research activity in the country ....................................................................................................... 10 2.1. History of Latvia’s relations with CERN and the participation in CERN programs .................... 10 2.2. International and institutional agreements between Latvia and CERN ................................... 11 2.3. Historic and current investment in CERN-related research .................................................... 11 2.4. The current state of high-energy physics and other CERN-related experimental physics research in Latvia......................................................................................................................... 12 2.4.1. Centre of High Energy Physics and Accelerator Technologies .......................................... 13 2.4.2. The CMS experiment ...................................................................................................... 14 2.4.3. Development of a Tier2 centre in Latvia ......................................................................... 15 2.4.4. The ISOLDE - LIEBE collaboration .................................................................................... 15 2.4.5. Crystal Clear Collaboration ............................................................................................. 16 2.4.6. CERN-MEDICIS project .................................................................................................... 17 2.5. Other CERN related activities ................................................................................................ 17 2.5.1. The Future Circular Collider study .................................................................................. 17 2.5.2. The ARIES project ........................................................................................................... 17 2.5.3. QuantHEP project .......................................................................................................... 18 2.5.4. Robotics at CERN ............................................................................................................ 18 2.5.5. The HERTIS project ......................................................................................................... 18 2.5.6. The I-FAST project .......................................................................................................... 19 2.5.7. The PRISMAS-MAP project ............................................................................................. 19 2.5.8. EU or other international grants related to research at CERN ......................................... 19 2.6. Relevant physics activities and projects outside the cooperation with CERN ......................... 20 2.6.1. Atomic and Molecular Physics, Astrospectroscopy ......................................................... 20 2.6.2. Astroparticle Physics ...................................................................................................... 22 2.6.3. Solid State Physics and Technical Physics ........................................................................ 22 2.6.4. Extremely-precise event timing measurements .............................................................. 23 2.7. The status and the future of scientific computing in Latvia .................................................... 23 2.8. Technological impact of high-energy physics and the prospective industrial engagement with CERN ........................................................................................................................................... 24 2.9. CERN-related education and outreaching activities ............................................................... 26 2.9.1. Short-term student visits to CERN .................................................................................. 26 2.9.2. Participation in the CERN Summer Student Programme ................................................. 26 2.9.3. Physics teachers programme .......................................................................................... 27 2.9.4. Schools, conferences and workshops ............................................................................. 27 2.9.5. Other activities ............................................................................................................... 28 3. Policy actions intended for strengthening the high-energy physics community in Latvia .......... 29 3.1. The national contact point for CERN ..................................................................................... 29 3.2. The action plan for the national contact point ....................................................................... 29 3.3. CERN Latvia Stakeholders Group ........................................................................................... 30 3.4. Study programme in particle physics and acceleration technologies ..................................... 31 3.5. The state research programme in high-energy physics and accelerator technologies ............ 32 3.6. The CERN Baltic Group .......................................................................................................... 32 2 4. General economic situation in the country............................................................................... 34 4.1. State of the economy ............................................................................................................ 34 4.1.1. Exports ........................................................................................................................... 35 4.1.2. Investments ................................................................................................................... 35 4.1.3. Productivity .................................................................................................................... 36 4.1.4. Labour market................................................................................................................ 37 4.1.5. Development perspectives for 2020-2023 ...................................................................... 38 4.2. Industry Characteristics......................................................................................................... 39 4.2.1. Manufacturing ............................................................................................................... 41 4.2.2. Small and Medium-sized enterprise profile .................................................................... 43 4.3. Gross Domestic Expenditure on R&D .................................................................................... 44 4.3.1. Value chain ecosystems.................................................................................................. 44 4.3.2. Innovation in State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) ................................................................ 45 4.3.3. Increase of the demand for innovation through public procurement for innovation ....... 45 4.3.1. R&D&I support and development of innovative enterprises ........................................... 46 4.4. Indicators of science, technology and innovation outputs ..................................................... 47 4.5. Human resources and skills ................................................................................................... 49 4.5.1. Secondary and tertiary education ................................................................................... 51 5. Organization of Science in the Country .................................................................................... 53 5.1. Available Funding Instruments and Agencies ............................................................................ 54 5.2. Structure of science funding ..................................................................................................... 57 5.3. Short- and Mid-term priorities .............................................................................................. 58 5.3.1. Priority directions in science 2018-2021 ......................................................................... 60 5.3.2. The future priorities of the Latvian R&D ......................................................................... 62 5.4. The main actors: universities, institutes and national laboratories........................................ 62 5.5. The education in science and engineering ............................................................................. 63 3 List of Abbreviations CERN – European Organisation for Nuclear Research CMS – Compact Muon Solenoid RTU – Riga Technical University UL – University of Latvia HPC